A Cosmopolitan Country Bumpkin

What to eat – and what not!

I have a tit problem. Or rather, the tits in the garden have a problem. They seem to be rather confused as to what consists bird food and what doesn’t.

We have had three large candles standing on the table on the covered terrace, and it seems the tits have mistaken these for food. Now, had it been late in winter with little food around, perhaps it would have made some sense, but considering that we’re still just in mid-autumn I really don’t understand why candle wax seems such an appealing dish.

In this picture you can see the marks of the tits in action along the left rim of the candle. (Obviously it wasn’t light while they munched on it.)

Now, clearly I can’t have the birds eating my candles, but since they clearly like to snack on stuff around the terrace I figured I’d find them something more suitable. I’ve now hung four bird feed balls on the terrace, and just in case this doesn’t catch the fancy of the tits I have also placed one in a candle holder so it can remind them of the candle wax they seem to enjoy.

Meanwhile, the candles have been moved inside and out of reach of the tits. I do hope they will continue to come play on the covered terrace, even though I’ve removed the candles…

(Oh, and the terrace is also a popular playground for a small wren that likes to jump around on the furniture and climb in the clematis vines…)

The candles are clearly better off inside – where I might actually also use them during the winter – and the birds are clearly better off with some purpose-made bird food, rather than the candle wax, so I think it’s safe to call this a win-win situation.

(Also, I hope they will like it because they provide me with so much entertainment when I’m lying back on the sofa, watching the garden, and they are playing around just outside the large windows by the sofa!)

How strange! I guess to them it did look like fat. Years ago we saw some little birds eating gravel and couldn’t believe it but then we found out they do it deliberately to aid the digestion of their food.
Hopefully your tits will be happier with more appropriate food. We’ve been delighted to see a wren in the garden over the last week. We don’t normally see them and they are such lovely little birds.

Most birds need a small amount of grit in their gizzard to be able to grind down their food, since they essentially swallow everything whole… At least, that’s what I learnt when I started rearing chickens as a kid!
I’ve never heard of any animals that needed any amount of candles, though. (Well, my parents DID have a dog that was very fond of candles and who would climb tables to get to them. Of course, she also liked ball-point pens, so she might just have been a bit excentric.)

The tits seem happy enough with the bird feed balls; the one in the candle holder has been played around with so much it is now located in a corner of the terrace, and one of the balls I hung up has been abducted entirely. (That might indicate some slightly larger animal than a tit; squirrels, perhaps?)

Today it seems the squirrels have been exonerated, since earlier this afternoon I was confused by some commotion on the covered terrace; it turned out to be a crow that was trying to pull down one of the feed balls… Sadly it didn’t stick around for a photo-op; it looked rather amusing to see a crow almost haning upside down, basking its wings and generally looking silly…

Well, you can’t really blame the cat; it seems like almost too much of a treat… (Also, I can’t imagine that mutton fat candles would really smell that great when you light them anyway; I imagine a scent of roast mutton wafting through the house…)